Vietnam enjoys 87 percent growth in agricultural trade surplus

Hanoi (VNA) – Foreign trade of agricultural, forestry and aquatic products reached 14.2 billion USD in the first two months of 2022, a year-on-year increase of 15.8 percent, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Revenue of these exports was estimated at 8 billion USD, up 20.9 percent year-on-year, while imports exceeded 6.2 billion USD, up 10 percent.

So far this year, Vietnam has enjoyed 1.8 billion USD in trade surplus in agriculture, forestry and fishery, 86.7 percent higher than last year’s figure.

From January-February, shipments of key agricultural products totalled over 3.2 billion USD, up 10.2 percent. Aquatic exports saw a significant surge of 47.2 percent to 1.5 billion USD. Forestry exports also increased 17 percent to nearly 2.9 billion USD during the period. Animal products, meanwhile, slid 3.5 percent to just 54.1 million USD.

Exports posting high growth included coffee (36 percent), rice (22 percent), pepper (44 percent), tra fish (83 percent), shrimp (34 percent), and wood and timber products (15.5 percent).

The US remained Vietnam’s biggest buyer, purchasing over 2.3 billion USD worth of the products, or 28.2 percent of the total. Some 70 percent of exports to the US were wood and timber products.

It was followed by China in the second and Japan in the third place. China imported nearly 1.3 billion USD (16.2 percent) from Vietnam, some 33.3 percent of which was rubber.

Shipments to Japan stood at 586 million USD (7.3 percent), 44.8 percent of which was wood and timber products.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is focusing efforts on gaining broader access for Vietnamese exports to major markets, such as Peru, Australia, Brazil, China and the US./.